IG Wild beim Wild criticises Zurich fur market in Dinhard
How such events combine tradition, commerce and animal suffering.
Criticism of fur, pelt and trophy events in Switzerland, exemplified by the traditional Zurich fur market 2026 in Dinhard (ZH) on 28 February 2026.
Wild animals are not commodities for entertainment, prestige and commerce.
IG Wild beim Wild criticises fur, pelt and trophy events in Switzerland in the strongest possible terms. Year after year, such events present killed wild animals as trophies, decorative objects and merchandise. This normalises an approach to wild animals that is no longer of our time and clearly contradicts society's expectations regarding animal ethics and respect for fellow creatures.
The organisers sell these events as the cultivation of tradition and as a contribution to so-called wildlife management. In reality, the focus is on killed wild animals whose body parts are measured, graded, awarded prizes or traded as merchandise. This practice promotes an outdated trophy culture in which it is not the animal as a sentient individual that counts, but the hunting achievement and the size of antlers, horns or other «signs of success».
It is particularly offensive that such events additionally serve as a marketplace for trade in pelts. Fox pelts and other hides are bought up, assessed, partly awarded prizes or raffled off. This trade ignores the suffering behind every single pelt and contributes to regarding wild animals as a raw material. While politics and society take steps towards restricting the fur trade, a commercialised form of hobby hunting that is barely ethically justifiable continues to be celebrated in Switzerland.
Such markets are not folklore but part of a system that puts a value on animal bodies. When pelts are traded at unit prices, animal suffering becomes a calculation. It is precisely this logic that is incompatible with a modern understanding of wildlife protection .
IG Wild beim Wild also points out that the depicted hunting practice often conveys an embellished picture. In reality, missed shots, injured animals and long ordeals of suffering are part of the everyday reality of hobby hunting. These aspects are neither addressed at such events nor openly communicated by those responsible. The claim that trophy shows serve to analyse the state of wildlife populations is barely tenable. Scientifically sound monitoring instruments do not require displayed skulls and antlers, which primarily serve self-promotion. Trophies are a material expression of killed wild animals, whose quality of kill, follow-up search and suffering scarcely feature in the official picture.
From an animal welfare perspective, it is also concerning that children and young people are introduced to such events without being taught a respectful and modern approach to dealing with wild animals. Instead of imparting knowledge, the focus is on a spectacle that trivialises violence and promotes a romanticised world of hunting.
Arms dealers, optics manufacturers, hunting accessories, hunting trips, raffles of hunting kills abroad: a hunting-industrial system of violence is emerging, in which kills and animal carcasses are part of a marketing system.
Those who kill senselessly do not protect anything, and it is of no use to a civilised society. Hobby hunters therefore do not ensure healthy or natural wildlife populations, especially not with their abhorrent fox hunting. Such events regularly raise questions about ethical aspects, permit practices and public impact, and it is high time they were fundamentally reviewed both politically and socially.
IG Wild beim Wild calls on those responsible in municipalities, towns and cantons to fundamentally rethink such events. A civilised society does not need competitions in which dead wild animals are presented as achievements, and it does not need a market on which pelts are traded like any other commodity. What is needed instead is a respectful understanding of wild animals, a scientifically grounded wildlife ecology and a move away from hobby hunting.